142. Into the Storm

2024.02.19.

At the same time.

Yuan looked up at the sky.

The clear blue sky, once cloudless and bright, had suddenly darkened like spilled ink spreading in all directions.

“Is it going to rain?”

Yuan briefly turned her head to glance down the path she had climbed, then froze.

When had she climbed this high?

Wiping sweat from her face with her sleeve, Yuan finally stood up and brushed herself off.

Slipping the strap of the bulky herb basket over her shoulder, she felt its heavy weight.

Last night.

After seeing Clade off, Yuan had stood there like a statue for a long while, only descending the hill at dawn.

She could have walked a little further to reach the cluster of tents, but the thought of possibly running into Clade again made her body stiffen involuntarily.

If she met him again and heard harsh words from him, she wasn’t sure she could keep herself from breaking down.

Hiding behind trees, Yuan wandered near the guarded entrance before ultimately heading toward the spot where she had seen the ship anchored from the hilltop.

Though this island was a pirate stronghold, it wasn’t completely deserted—several fishermen had already gathered by the shore at this early hour.

With two massive warships docked at the small island, a few elderly fishermen were having a serious conversation.

Hesitating, Yuan approached them. She carefully explained the situation to their anxious faces.

“Wait, you really eliminated all those pirates?”

“No wonder the beach was so noisy yesterday! On our way here, we saw pirate corpses—what happened?”

“Oh, thank you! Thank you so much, miss!”

Their already deeply bent backs bowed even lower, nearly folding in half.

The old fishermen kept bowing repeatedly, explaining that for the past few years, they had barely survived under the occupation of the Karso pirate gang, forced to hand over their food and caught fish as tribute.

They fretted and stomped their feet, lamenting they had nothing to offer the knights who had rid them of the pirates. Suddenly, Yuan remembered a medic mentioning they were running low on ointment for deep wounds and decided to ask about it.

“If it’s that herb you’re after, just climb a little way up the mountain behind the pirates’ hideout! They forced our villagers to gather baskets of it every time one of them got injured, so we know exactly where it grows.”

“Is that what you need?”

Yuan quickly nodded.

A significant amount of the herb would be needed to treat wounds as severe as Clade’s.

Moreover, if the soldiers were about to set out today to execute Karso, most of the nearly 300 troops might require medicine.

“There’s a small path from our village leading up the mountain. The pirates tolerated us using it to gather herbs, so women and children often walk it. If you’d like, we can guide you.”

Dawn was breaking.

Fearing she might run into Clade while he prepared for departure, Yuan slipped out during the guard’s shift change, taking only the herb basket with her.

She had entered Tasha’s tent where she was still asleep and left a note saying she’d return quickly from gathering herbs nearby in a safe spot early in the morning.

Having pushed herself this far, she felt pressured to do something, even if it meant overexertion.

So absorbed in gathering herbs since dawn, she hadn’t noticed she’d already reached the mountainside.

The elderly fishermen who had guided her to the entrance had long since returned to the village, kindly smiling and telling her to take as many herbs as she wanted.

Thud. Thud.

As raindrops began falling one by one onto her pale face, Yuan tightened her grip on the strap of the basket over her shoulder.

“The medics will be grateful.”

Since just seeing her made Clade tremble with rage, this was the only way.

She planned to gather herbs quickly and, without drying them, help the medics prepare large amounts of potent ointment for deep wounds while the soldiers were away.

If she made enough medicine for everyone, she could even ask Eugene Kimfri or Noel to deliver it to Clade.

Suddenly, the conversation she’d had with Clade the previous night came back to her.

Words that had soaked into her heart like the raindrops now dampening her clothes.

The small shoulders bearing the heavy basket gradually slumped lower.

With each step she took, Yuan straightened her aching shoulders and quickly shook her head.

No distracting thoughts.

Now was the time to think only about how to get Clade to quietly accept treatment.

With determined steps, Yuan quickly descended the mountain path.

Whooshhhhhhh—.

A sudden, violent gust of wind tore through Yuan’s hair with a force as fierce as the winter winds of Roxenhardt.

It was a strong wind that unsettled the heart.

Thinking she should hurry down before the rain worsened, she took another step on a solid rock—

when suddenly, before she could even register surprise, a massive shadow crashed into her, knocking her to the ground and rolling her through the dirt.

Only belatedly did a short scream escape her.

Her lower back throbbed painfully, as if she’d hit a rock.

But she had no time to focus on that.

“Heh heh heh. What a lucky find.”

A filthy man, built like a house, grinned down at her, his yellow teeth missing one fang.

“I may not have gotten treasure, but I can still take a woman with me.”

“…Pirate?”

Though her heart was pounding wildly, Yuan asked calmly.

The pirate scanned Yuan’s delicate, softly-featured face and smiled in satisfaction.

“I’m the man who’ll be your husband now! Stay still. If you don’t scream, I’ll take you quietly to the mainland and make you my bride.”

He answered gruffly, binding Yuan’s wrists and examining her thoroughly.

Yuan instantly realized this pirate had fled after his main base was raided and had stumbled upon her.

“Heh heh heh… Or maybe I’ll just take you right now— Urk!”

Suddenly.

The large, filthy pirate, who had been talking wildly, abruptly released Yuan’s bound wrists, staggered back, and scrambled to his feet.

“Uuuuugh! Aaaargh!”

He curled over as if kicked in the gut, groaning in agony, then collapsed as if his legs had been severed.

Swish swish swish swish—.

The thick trees towering over them bent violently in the increasingly fierce wind, their leaves clattering against one another.

For a moment, the intense noise was so chilling it made the listener shiver—as if the entire mountain itself were roaring in fury.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

The pirate, disoriented by sudden pain, staggered to his feet and lunged desperately at Yuan, who had retightened her basket strap.

A large, hairy hand, broad as a pot lid, clamped tightly around her pale, slender arm.

But the instant he touched her—

“Aaargh!”

Twisting and writhing as if struck by a deadly rain of arrows, the pirate staggered backward.

“What— what the X! What is this! Aaah! Aaaargh!”

His limbs felt slashed; his head pounded as if struck by a blunt object.

Startled by the sudden agony, the pirate only belatedly began chasing Yuan as she fled.

Yuan clutched the basket strap tightly and gritted her teeth.

The ability to inflict pain also strained her own body.

Already exhausted from lack of sleep and overexertion since dawn, there were limits to how much suffering she could project.

Rather than exhausting her last strength on a pirate already dazed by pain, she chose to push through the weakening wind and run down the mountain path.

She calculated that having forced the agony of a leg injury upon him, no matter how ferocious his intent, he wouldn’t be able to catch her.

“Stop! Stop! You’re mine! I have to take you with me—!”

But the pirate’s booming voice, which had echoed even through the strange weather, fell silent.

Sccchhheeeek—!

The rough wind and the pirate’s voice were suddenly split apart by a sharp, flying force.

A heavy object thudded wetly onto the soaked ground—thud, thud.

It was a sound she had never heard in her life, chilling to the bone.

Struggling to keep her eyes open against the driving rain, Yuan was startled by something hard striking her forehead and looked up.

Her dark eyes widened, even in the pouring rain.

Soaked to the bone, Clade stood before her.

Blocking her path.

The man who had just cut down the danger pursuing her in a single strike.

Psssshhhhhh—.

In the pouring rain.

Yuan stood frozen, as if time had stopped, then turned her gaze to where Clade’s hand was extended.

Behind her, a long blade had cleanly severed the neck of the filthy pirate who had just been speaking, then buried itself deep into a thick tree trunk.

The rain swiftly washed the pirate’s splattered blood from the air.

Yuan saw, with her own eyes, a spine-chilling fear.

It wasn’t the severed head rolling on the ground that frightened her.

Nor was it Clade’s soaked chest, rising and falling heavily as he stood close to her.

Nor even the other severed head clutched in his other hand.

What truly filled her with terror was—

Clade’s eyes, glaring down at her as if he wanted to crush her utterly, as the storm began to howl like a furious roar.

Giant trees bending as if their deep roots were being torn out.

Dense thickets crashing and tearing against each other, shrieking.

No matter how violently the rain slashed and tore through the air like buckets being dumped, nothing could fill the silence between them.

Only belatedly, overwhelmed by the release of old tension and the arrival of new dread, did Yuan begin gasping for breath like a drowning person.

It was then that Clade, drenched head to toe, seized her arm as if to snap it and began striding forward rapidly.

The large man soaked in blood and the small woman.

Both vanished swiftly into the storm.